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Baccarat is the fastest, fairest card game on any casino floor: three bets, two hands, zero stress.
In the next ten minutes you’ll learn how to calculate totals in seconds, when the dealer draws a third card, which version to choose, and how to cut the house edge to 1 %.
Whether you want to play $5 mini-baccarat in Vegas, a ₿1,000 VIP table online, or simply understand why James Bond always bets “Banker,” this guide has you covered.
Baccarat is a two-hand contest: “Player” vs. “Banker”. You bet on which hand will finish closer to 9, or on a Tie. Cards 2-9 keep face value, 10/J-Q-K count 0, Aces count 1. Only the last digit of any total matters—15 becomes 5, 10 becomes 0. The casino handles every draw decision; your only job is to place a bet and know when you get paid.
Because the house edge swings from 1.06 % (Banker) to 14.4 % (Tie), knowing the exact rule set protects your bankroll. Mis-judging commission (5 % vs. 4 %) or the number of decks (8 vs. 6) can cost an extra 0.03 % per hand—small alone, huge over 1 000 shoes.
| Rule Point | Punto Banco (U.S.) | Chemin de Fer (France) | Baccarat Banque (Europe) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who acts as Banker | House dealer | Player to dealer’s right, rotates | House picks fixed banker |
| Player may draw 3rd card | Never; rules fixed | May stand/hit 5 | May stand/hit 5 |
| Banker may draw 3rd card | Never; rules fixed | May choose freely | May choose freely |
| Commission on Banker win | 5 % | 0 % (even money) | 0 % (even money) |
| Shoe size (decks) | 6 or 8 | 6 | 3 |
| Typical table limit | $5 – $100 000 | €50 – €5 000 | €100 – €50 000 |
| House edge (Banker) | 1.06 % | 1.05 % | 1.05 % |
Baccarat looks elegant, but its math is junior-school simple: only the last digit of any total counts. Memorise the tiny value chart once and you’ll scan the felt as fast as the tuxedoed dealer, impressing tourists and pit bosses alike. Every shoe, every hand, every squeal of joy from the high-stakes corner starts with the same two-or-three-card sum that can never exceed nine. Once you grasp why a King and a Nine equal “9” while a Seven and a Six equal “3,” you’ve unlocked the entire game—no splitting, no doubling, no bluffing, no panic. The rest is just etiquette and bankroll.
Numerical cards, face cards, and aces
Add all cards, then throw away the tens digit.
8 + 7 = 15 → value 5
9 + 9 = 18 → value 8
10 + K = 20 → value 0 (the original “baccarat”)
A two-card total of 8 or 9 is a “natural.” If either side shows a natural, both stand and the closest to 9 wins instantly—no third card is drawn.
If Player and Banker finish with identical totals the hand is a Tie; bets on Player and Banker push, Tie bets are paid (usually 8-to-1).
At the start of every coup the croupier slides two cards face-up to the “Player” box, then two to the “Banker” box—order never changes, speed is lightning-fast. No one at the table needs to touch the cards in Punto Banco; the ritual is pure theatre, but the sequence is sacred because every later draw depends on those first four faces. Memorise the flow once and you can sip your Martini without missing the moment when odds flip from 44 % to 50 % in Banker’s favour.
In Punto Banco the words “Player” and “Banker” are just logos on felt; the casino banks both hands and follows rigid rules. The shoe-holder (often a player) merely ritualises the deal, sliding cards in strict order: Player’s first card to the right, Banker’s to the left, repeat once more. After four cards are exposed the caller announces totals and, if needed, beckons a fifth or sixth according to an immutable table—no gambler ever decides anything, which is why beginners love the game.
Step-by-step round flow
Player always draws on 0-5, stands on 6-7, and stays pat with 8-9. That single sentence governs half of every shoe and is tattooed on every caller’s brain. If Player stands, Banker now treats its own two-card total exactly like Player—draw 0-5, stand 6-7—creating the 1.06 % edge everyone talks about.
If Player did draw, Banker consults a 6-line mini-table that cross-refaces its total versus Player’s third card. Example: Banker 4 draws only if Player’s third card is 2-7; against 1, 8, 9, 10 it stands. The matrix looks arcane, but it is printed on the felt and recited aloud—there are zero exceptions in Punto Banco, so the edge never drifts.
The only quirky footnote occurs in some Macau VIP rooms where a 5 % commission on Banker is reduced to 4 % or even 3 %, but the third-card tableau stays identical. Online RNG tables occasionally offer “No-Commission” Punto Banco where Banker wins on 6 pay 1:2 instead of 1:1; that single tweak raises the house edge from 1.06 % to 1.46 % even though the drawing rules never change.
Baccarat offers only three core bets, yet their odds swing from a slim 1 % to a fat 14 % house edge. Picking the right one every hand is the single biggest lever you have over long-term losses.
Banker wins 45.86 %, loses 44.62 %, ties 9.52 %. After standard 5 % commission the house keeps 1.06 %. Player wins 44.62 %, house edge 1.24 %. The 0.18 % gap looks tiny, but compounds to almost one extra bet per shoe—always start with Banker.
Flat-bet Banker every hand until the shoe ends; deviations cost 0.18 % per switch. If you must vary stakes, raise after a Banker loss, never after a win—streaks last longer than intuition suggests.
Tie occurs 9.52 % of rounds, pays 8:1 on most tables. House edge rockets to 14.36 %—worse than most slot machines. You need one Tie every 7.5 attempts to break even; math says you’ll get one in 10.5.
A single lucky £10 Tie returns £80, but expectation is –£1.44 per bet. Treat it like a lottery ticket: one small stake at the start of a shoe, abandon if it misses.
Dragon Bonus (Banker or Player wins by 4+ points) carries 2.65 % edge; Panda 8 (Player wins with exactly 8 over three cards) pays 25:1 but costs 10.19 %.
EZ-Baccarat Dragon 7 (Banker wins with 3-card 7) pays 40:1 at 7.61 % edge.
They don’t—each is independent and negative-EV. Budget them as entertainment, never chase with progressive stakes, and cap exposure to under 5 % of total bankroll per shoe.
Baccarat’s elegance hides costly traps. Treating the glowing bead-road like a crystal ball, chasing Tie because it “feels due,” or tripling stakes after two losses can turn a 1 % edge into 14 % carnage faster than the dealer can say “carte.” Flat-bet Banker, budget 100 units per shoe, and leave superstition to the movies—your wallet will thank you.
Big Road, Bead Plate and derived “trend” screens look scientific, but every hand is still an independent 50-50 coin flip minus commission. Chasing a mythical “dragon tail” or doubling after four consecutive Banker wins assumes memory in eight fresh decks; it isn’t there. Treat patterns as entertainment ink, not betting instructions, and you’ll dodge the most expensive psychological trap the casino offers.
Plopping chips on Tie because it “feels due” turns a 1 % grind into a 14 % carnival game. The same goes for side bets decorated with shiny payouts: Dragon 7, Panda 8, Perfect Pair all carry edges two to ten times higher than the main bets. Banker’s 1.06 % is the thinnest slice the house will give you; anything else is voluntary self-taxation.
Bringing a 20-unit stake to a 60-hand shoe is financial roulette. Flat-betting 1 % of your roll per hand survives 95 % of normal down-swings; raising stakes after losses digs a 6-unit hole faster than the 45 % win rate can refill it. Set a stop-loss at 50 % of the session bankroll and a win target at 30 %—hit either, color-up, and walk.
In a real casino the shoe is passed, cards are squeezed, and the caller recites the tableau; online, software enforces the same rules in a tenth of the time. Random-number generators remove shuffle-tracking, deliver eight fresh decks every hand, and never mis-pay commission. Interface buttons replace verbal calls, but third-card logic, 5 % banker tax and 8-to-1 tie odds are identical. The main rule difference is speed: 200-plus hands per hour online versus 40 live, so bank-roll safeguards must scale accordingly.
Click “Deal” and the RNG produces two two-card strings in milliseconds. Naturals are announced instantly; if a third card is needed the software consults the embedded tableau and displays the extra card without player input. Winnings are added to balance before the chips finish sliding across the virtual felt, letting you re-bet or double with one tap.
Use the “Re-Bet” button to duplicate the previous coup in under a second—perfect for flat-banker grinders. Enable “Quick Deal” to hide animations and cut 3-4 seconds per hand, saving 200+ hands per hour. Pre-set a loss limit in the cashier before you open the table; autoplay stops the moment it’s hit, shielding you from the accelerated down-swings that high-speed RNG can deliver.
In live-studio baccarat a human croupier stands behind a real eight-deck shoe, scans each card with an optical reader, and enters the values into the same RNG-free rules engine used on the Vegas Strip. The tableau is applied live: if Player shows 0-5 the dealer calls “Card for Player,” burns the next card face-down, then flips it; Banker’s response is dictated by the identical mini-matrix you memorised for Punto Banco. Commission (5 % on Banker wins) is deducted automatically by software before chips are pushed, so the 1.06 % house edge and 9.52 % tie frequency remain mathematically unchanged.
Interaction comes through a chat window—type “P” or “B” and the dealer greets you by screen-name, squeezes cards when requested, and announces naturals with the same cadence as a Macau VIP room. Side bets (Dragon Bonus, Panda 8, Super 6) are accepted via on-screen chips before the 15-second betting window closes; optical sensors verify correct placement and lock the wager, eliminating manual errors. Because cards are physical, burned cards are real and the cut-card is placed 14 cards from the shoe end, reproducing land-based penetration and variance. In short, every rule, payout and ritual is streamed 1:1—only the cocktail waitress is missing.
